WASHINGTON -- More people advocate cutting the space agency's funding than did a decade ago, according to a recent Gallup poll, despite NASA's recent commitment to low-cost missions and despite a string of exciting developments in space. At the same time, a majority of people think that the space programs have brought enough benefits to justify their costs.

The poll of 1,061 adults, conducted on July 13 and 14, showed that 26 percent of Americans favored reducing NASA's budget, compared with 22 percent in 1989. In the most recent poll, 18 percent of the population favored budget increases, and 45 percent thought it should remain the same.

The Clinton administration has pretty much complied, maintaining a stable budget request for NASA for the past few years. The Congressional version of the NASA budget for the next three years, as authorized by the Senate and House Space Committees, increases less than one percent each year, from $13.636B in 2000 to $13.847B in 2002.

Although the results show less support for the space program than ten years ago, they are still better than the results of Gallup's 1993 poll, which recorded the least support for NASA in the poll's history, despite the fact that astronauts had just successfully repaired the flawed Hubble telescope. At the time, only 9 percent of the population favored more money for NASA and 41 percent thought its budget should be cut.

Paradoxically, the current poll reported that 55 percent of people, more people than ever before, believe that the space program has brought enough benefits to justify its costs. Only 40 percent believed it did not and 5 percent did not know. When an NBC/Associated Press poll first asked that question in 1979, only 41 percent of Americans thought the benefits justified the costs, and 53 percent believed it did not.

NASA does not comment on poll results, spokeswoman Beth Schmid said.